Tag: zephyr

Greetings, Shredderz! It has been a while since the last installment of our Social Media Roundup series, but I’m afraid there’s too much heat on Instagram not to share here. I don’t get paid by the word around these parts, so start scrolling for some recent selections:

Zephyr is an iconic brand that played an instrumental role in shaping surf and skate culture as we know it today. The picture above features Skip Engblom — cinephiles may recognize the name as the character played by Heath Ledger in “Lords of Dogtown” — artist CR Stecyk III, and shaper Jeff Ho, looking as fresh as can be in their finest seventies regalia. Engblom’s short shorts, windbreaker and OG Budweiser beer can ensemble is an absolutely killer look. And don’t miss those two gorgeous Zephyr single fins in the middle, too!

A post shared by Hulloholic (@hulloholic) on Nov 22, 2017 at 5:28am PST

If you missed our post last week on a Dave Parmenter board made for Tom Carroll, you can check it out here. The Instagram post above, however, proves that TC has an open mind when it comes to equipment. It’s so rad to see Carroll putting a Liddle hull through its paces.

First, if you don’t follow Duncan Campbell on Instagram, you must. Not only is Duncan the co-creator of the Bonzer, but he frequently shares photos and tidbits from his long history of the board. Pictured above is Craig Fineman, a well-regarded skate and surf photographer who sadly passed away in 2003, posing alongside an early Bonzer creation. (Also see our earlier post on Russ Short, which features quotes taken from a Surfer feature Fineman wrote and photographed.)

Over the past few weeks I seemed to find Mike Purpus boards all over the place, and during my research I stumbled across this amazing example of a Hot Lips single fin. I’m guessing the board was shaped during the 1970s. Note the rad little Clark Foam laminate near the tail on the deck of the board. This Instagram didn’t fit with any of the previous posts I wrote about Mike Purpus and Hot Lips, but it’s too beautiful not to share somewhere!

I’ve been meaning to do a longer feature on Zephyr Surfboards, the famed Los Angeles surf shop that later became ground zero for Venice Beach’s surf and skate scene, as immortalized in the Stacey Peralta documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys.” In the meantime, though, a pretty fantastic example of a genuine Jeff Ho board has come up for sale on Craigslist, and I’m afraid that kind of heat can’t afford to wait for anyone, much less the overworked and underpaid Shred Sledz editorial team!

The board pictured above is a 1973 Zephyr Surfboards / Jeff Ho single fin that can currently be found for sale on Craigslist in San Francisco (link here). I want to say the board is all original, but as always, buyer beware, and there’s no way of knowing the full extent of its condition unless you see it in person. With that said, check out that crazy fin! Sadly, such quality comes at a pretty steep price: the poster is asking $3,500 for the board. Original Zephyr boards are insanely collectible and difficult to come by.

As nuts as it sounds, I don’t think this is an outrageous price for the board. For example, here is another Jeff Ho Zephyr surfboard that sold for $4,100 at auction recently. However, there are a few points that make the auction board more collectible and expensive. First, the auction board pictured below boasts a C.R. Stecyk spray job. Stecyk was a Z Boy who later became a renowned artist. Boards bearing Stecyk’s touch are the rare pieces of surf memorabilia that have some significance in the world of fine art, too.

I do not know who Jeff from Palms, West LA is. What I do know, however, is that he is a man of impeccable taste who casually takes some sick old boards and just throws them on Craigslist for everyday cro-magnons like you and I to peruse. What we have here (via Craigslist) is a wonderful piece of California surf history…a vintage Jeff Ho surfboard. Jeff claims it’s from the pre-Zephyr days, and the Zephyr sticker he ended up putting on the board was originally intended for a skateboard restoration. This makes sense, as it’s a far cry from the iconic Zephyr logo that has come to signify Dogtown and Venice Beach, and perhaps one of the most seminal crews and eras of Southern California surf culture. The board isn’t in great condition, and it’s pretty expensive, but I tend to think Jeff knows exactly what he’s doing. Either way, it’s worth looking at the pictures.